Tommy Elphick is just fine as an Aston Villa center back

Rumors continue to circulate regarding Tommy Elphick’s future at Aston Villa. The Englishman was the first ever signing after Dr. Tony Xia’s takeover as principal owner. Elphick may not be a starter, but he’s just fine as understudy. But does he want that?

Listen, Tommy Elphick is a very vanilla footballer. He’s an astute, tactical central defender whose understanding of the game far surpasses his athletic ability. This showed in his maiden Aston Villa season where he became captain under then-manager, Roberto Di Matteo.

For much of the year, Elphick was thrown around by bigger and quicker opposing forwards. He struggled in several appearances after a single victory in twelve matches to start the season.

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Elphick was brought in from Bournemouth (he was also their captain in limited appearances) for £3 million. The signing was seen as one to change the dressing room attitude that poisoned the club in previous years. Far too many players simply did not care the club was struggling in nearly every aspect of the game. Elphick was to change that in England’s second division.

Unfortunately, he picked-up a muscle injury and lost his starting gig to Nathan Baker – who subsequently impressed under a new manager, Steve Bruce.

Tommy Elphick may never return to the form that made him a dominant EFL defender under Bournemouth. But that’s ok. He doesn’t need to be with James Chester and Nathan Baker both on the books at Aston Villa.

At age 29, what he needs to be is a sound reserve for the club when called upon (which could be often given Nathan Baker’s rash injury history). Steve Bruce is said to be looking for another center back in place of Tommy Elphick.

While that’s fine in a vacuum, Bruce should exercise caution given the price on other center backs. John Terry is moving to Bournemouth on huge wages, Marc Roberts probably won’t leave Barnsley for anything less than £6 million, likewise for Aden Flint at Bristol.

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Maybe Elphick wants to leave for playing time at another Championship club. Both Birmingham City and Leeds United have been linked to Tommy this summer.

Elphick really should not leave unless a direct replacement is already found. He can’t really be dubbed, “surplus to requirements” when there is no surplus to be found.